Convinced of the truth that we will become what we focus on. Therefore we focus on beholding Christ in the hope that we will become like Him.

Friday, June 20, 2008

N.T. Wright on the Colbert Report

I don't make a habit of watching the Colbert Report for all the obvious reasons, but when I saw that N.T. Wright was going to be on the show I was intrigued and just had to watch.

I was a little frustrated that I had to wait the entire show to see Dr. Wright's segment appear at the end of the show. Now I do want to complement Dr. Wright on his ability to convey anything meaningful on a show like this one, whose main goal seems to be the highlighting of clever and sometimes mean satire.

Dr. Wright did a great job explaining that Heaven is not a permanent eternal home. We are actually looking ahead to the New Creation after the resurrection of the dead. This is a truth that has simply slipped out of evangelical thinking, to our detriment.

But it was what he did not say that left a bitter taste in my mouth. There was no word about how one gets to this New Creation or if there was a corresponding place of eternal torment. The Gospel was simple missing. There was no mention of Jesus, there was no mention of the Cross that makes entrance into the New Creation a reality and no word about how one must respond to God's offer of salvation. This was a tragedy. But I am not shocked.

1 comment:

In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed.

The heavens and earth will be rolled up and discarded, in the way that clothes are changed.

The old clothes that have perished are thrown away, and replaced with new clothes.

The old clothes are rolled up and thrown away.

As I said, Wright is very good on explaining this 'clothing' metaphor, which many people up to now have failed to understand.

Just One Beholding

I am the senior Pastor of the Sidney Missionary Baptist Church. I am happily married to Edna and am the Father of Esther and Sophia. I attended the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary from 2002 to 2008. Some of my favorite authors are John Piper, C.S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, Andrew Fuller, C. H. Spurgeon, J. C. Ryle, Alan Jacobs, and Jerry Bridges. I also love US history, presidential history, and Military history. And I'm a sports junkie.